Conference
Report: Noble Ideals and Bloody Realities:
Maya
Yazigi and Niall Christie (Organizers)
On
31st October to 1st November 2003, the 33rd Annual Medieval Workshop was held at
the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. This event formed part
of the series of conferences on topics medieval held at the university on an
annual basis, under the auspices of the UBC Committee for Medieval Studies.
Theme
In
2003 the theme chosen was “Noble Ideals and Bloody Realities: Warfare in the
Middle Ages, 378-1492.”
It
was our intention that the subjects addressed at the conference should represent
a wider range of concerns than the actions of troops on the battlefield and
historical chronicles of conflicts. With regard to the participants in
conflicts, we also aimed to address a number of issues including negotiations,
problems of supply, the distribution of booty and the fate of prisoners.
However, we also intended to discuss the clergy and their attitudes to warfare,
the impact of war on the common folk and the mercantile classes, and the
presentation of warfare in sources other than the chronicles, including literary
works such as epics and romances, scientific treatises, art, architecture and
material remains from the period.
Program
We
were fortunate to receive contributions from a number of distinguished scholars,
enabling us to present a wide-ranging and high-quality program, which addressed
warfare not only in western Europe but also in the Byzantine Empire and the
Islamic world. The program consisted of the following papers:
Keynote
Lectures:
Hugh
Kennedy (University of St Andrews): “A Military Revolution in the Early
Islamic World”
Warren
Treadgold (Saint Louis University): “Byzantium, The Reluctant Warrior”
Papers:
Kelly
DeVries (Loyola College): “The Value of Human Life in Medieval Warfare”
Amanda
Spencer (University of Toronto): “The Just War in the Middle Ages”
Niall
Christie (University of British Columbia): “Preaching the Divine Plan: the Kitab
al-Jihad of ‘Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami”
Piers
Mitchell (University of London): “The Torture of Military Captives in the
Crusades to the Medieval Middle East”
Ilana
Krug (University of Toronto): “Wartime Corruption and Complaints of the
English Peasantry”
Loula
Abd-elrazak (Université de Montréal): “Le Thème de la Guerre dans un Roman
du XVe Siècle”
Robert
Daum (University of British Columbia/Diamond Foundation Chair in Jewish Law and
Ethics): “Redeeming Social Value: Rhetoric and the Ransoming of Captives in
Medieval Jewish Law”
John
France (University of Wales Swansea): “Thinking about Crusader Strategy
(1095-1221)”
Paula
Stiles (University of St Andrews): “Arming the Enemy: Non-Christians and the
Defense of Christian Cities in Medieval Spain”
David
Sylvester (Corpus Christi College): “Communal Piracy in Medieval England’s
Cinque Ports”
David
Hay (University of Lethbridge): “The Forgotten Victress: the Late Campaigns of
Countess Mathilda of Canossa, 1097-1115”
Marcus
Milwright (University of Victoria): “Renaud de Chatillon and the Red Sea
Expedition of 1182-1183”
David
Bachrach (University of New Hampshire): “Knocking Down the Walls: Siege
Warfare in High Medieval Germany”
Results
The
conference attracted a large number of participants, from both UBC and further
away, with attendance at times reaching as high as 80. The papers provoked a
great deal of discussion during both the sessions and the breaks in between.
Participants were also enabled to make contact and establish links with other
scholars in the field.